---
title: "AI-Generated Halloween Music Is a Cool Idea, But it Sounds Awful"
description: "Researchers at MIT fed some famous scary movie soundtracks to an AI and came up with something that lacked emotional impact."
date: "2018-10-31"
modified: "2018-10-31"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-released-scary-halloween-music-generated-ai"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "halloween"
  - "mit"
  - "the digest"
---

# AI-Generated Halloween Music Is a Cool Idea, But it Sounds Awful

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/mit-released-scary-halloween-music-generated-ai.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Happy Halloween

The soundtrack to the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller *Psycho* is iconic — remember the shower scene? But when an AI reinterprets its shrieking, staccato theme, it's stripped of almost all its creepiness.

Or that's at least what happened when MIT researchers ran a number of famous horror movie melodies through an algorithm. AI-Generated Halloween music just isn't that scary.

## Mix Tape

As part of the ["Uncanny Musicbox](<http://uncannymusicbox.com/>)," the researchers fed short clips from famous soundtracks — from *Psycho* to *The Exorcist* — into an AI that's trained to generate more spooky music on its own.

"The goal behind this project is to learn what makes a music sound scary, and develop an AI that generates personalized scary music," wrote Pinar Yanardag, Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Media Lab, in an email to Futurism.

## Wrong Way

The only problem: the music lacks emotional impact. It sounds more like a middle school music class project than a fully featured pop [album composed and produced by an AI](<https://futurism.com/the-worlds-first-album-composed-and-produced-by-an-ai-has-been-unveiled>). Will Danny Elfman and Bernard Hermann be out of a job tomorrow? Unlikely.

But it's a cool idea that shows off creative uses for AI. It just doesn't inspire a sense of looming dread.

**Read More: Get in the Halloween Spirit with This AI-Generated Spooky Music \[[Motherboard](<https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kzjmjy/get-in-the-halloween-spirit-with-this-ai-generated-spooky-music>)\]**

**More on AI-generated music: [The World’s First Album Composed and Produced by an AI Has Been Unveiled](<https://futurism.com/the-worlds-first-album-composed-and-produced-by-an-ai-has-been-unveiled>)**

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)